Any fashion person – or otherwise – who has frequented some of New York’s most legendary eateries and nightclubs will know David Rabin. He is a familiar and friendly face—as a partner in American Bar, Veranda, Sona, JIMMY and well as The Skylark and The Lambs Club (both slated to reopen this fall) – and has a long history of creating the kind of places favored by fashion folks, including, in the past, Lotus, The Double Seven, Union Bar and Rex, among others.

Rabin is on the executive board of the Times Square Alliance and the Board of Directors of the NYC Hospitality Alliance, and was a co-founder and President of the Meatpacking District Initiative.

Next up, the relaunch the Temple Bar – and knowing David, he’s got a few more fabulous ideas up his sleeve. We caught up with him about his career, New York City and how it changed, the fashion crowd, and more.

David, give us some insight into your background. How did you get into nightlife, restaurants, and hospitality?

Our start in the business was really sort of a happy accident. I was a real estate lawyer doing a little bit of entertainment law and was being invited to some of those cool NYC parties that you only learn about if you are involved with music or fashion. I kept running into one of my close friends from college, who at the time was working on Wall Street but dating a very famous fashion model.  We’d go to Nell’s, MK, and Peggy Sue’s together and joke around that we should quit our jobs and open a club because between the two of us, we seemed to know a sizable portion of that crowd. One night, after perhaps a bit too much tequila at Nell’s, we shook hands on the idea of leaving our “real” jobs and opening a restaurant/club; and a year later, Rex was born.

Since you entered the business, how has New York City changed?

Wow. Immeasurably.  It got much safer. But in many areas, it also got antiseptic and lacking in innovation. Many neighborhoods sadly became mall-like. We watched Soho go from one of the coolest areas to one filled with solely big luxury brands and big box retailers. And we (with Lotus and The Double Seven) helped “launch” the Meatpacking District along with Jeffrey’s, Pastis – and of course Florent which was already there – and then watched within six years how it lost its distinctive character and flavor as major retailers pushed out the cool galleries and one-off clothing shops…and now it’s practically empty at night. We’ve also seen the rise of Brooklyn as both a great residential area and a hospitality destination, and now Queens as well. So, what used to be concentrated below 14th street is now happening in other boroughs – and across the country at the various festivals. I can only hope that in this post-pandemic world, someone might create something like Area or Mars or B-Bar again.

You always manage to attract a fashion clientele. What’s the secret ingredient?

To some extent luck.  Our earliest relationships were with the models, their agents, and fashion designers. In the early days of our first place, Rex, it was not unusual to see Marc Jacobs, Michael Kors, Gordon Henderson, Isaac Mizrahi, and more on a regular basis. And the great Elizabeth Saltzman was regularly bringing in many famous people from fashion, music, and Hollywood, who were the subjects of cover stories for Vogue. I think we had the first actual “End of Fashion Week” party – we did a “Blue Jeans and Burgers” party at Rex co-hosted by Cindy, Linda, Christy, and Naomi in, I believe, 1991. And Fern Mallis let us throw two massive parties to end Fashion Week in the tents in Bryant Park in the early 1990s. Fortunately, we were able to pick up on those relationships when we did Lotus. And while faces change over the years, enough stay the same that those folks pass the word to their younger colleagues who have populated American Bar, Sona, Veranda, and JIMMY over these last few years. It didn’t hurt that from about 2010 to 2015, The Lambs Club was kind of the Conde Nast editorial cafeteria.

What do you consider a successful night out?

Well, for me, I’m pretty chill so I’m very happy to meet up with some old friends for dinner and hopefully some new great people. I love to mix up a bunch of folks and hope that the mix works well, and everyone makes new friends that exist outside of my own little orbit. I think the great thing about NYC is constantly meeting new, fun, kind, interesting people, and connecting them to other like-minded folks.  For our guests, I’d hope a successful night for them would be a night in which they are treated really well by our staff, enjoy some great music, food and drink, and create a little memory that makes them love NYC all that much more.

Besides your own, what is your favorite restaurant and why do you love it so much?

I’d have to say The Odeon. For me it just embodies the whole vibe I love about NY.  A martini and a steak frites in that room with that lighting and that effortlessly “downtown” NYC crowd is what New York feels like to me at its best.

How are the realities of Covid changing the hospitality industry?

In so many ways but I’d say the most impactful for our industry is with staffing. Staff has just disappeared. Many restaurants can only open four nights per week. Or with no brunch. There just aren’t enough servers or cooks. And people have developed a new, strange sense of reality. We’ve been having a hard time finding a new GM for one of the venues. And our recruiter told me it’s because so many applicants don’t want to work at night. I’m kind of like “What? You’re looking for work as a hospitality GM but you don’t want to work at night?” Also, I’ve found that 7pm is the new 830pm. Everyone wants to eat early.  I’m hoping that spreads out to later at night again as people come back to town.

What are the opportunities at this time?

I think that rents are probably more approachable and reasonable now than they’ve been in a long time.  And unfortunately, many restaurants didn’t survive Covid through no fault of their own. So, if you have a good location and were able to hang in there, in theory, there is a bit less competition than there was 18 months ago. But I think new concepts will come hard and fast as the NYC local dining community returns from 18 months in the Hamptons or Westchester.

What’s next for David Rabin?

In the immediate future, we’re re-launching the legendary Temple Bar in Noho which we hope will fill a niche for folks who’ve been to dinner and aren’t ready to head home, but aren’t looking for a big club experience…just wanting to have the best cocktail (courtesy of our partners from Attaboy) in a gorgeously restored room with great art, great music, and great lighting.  Longer term, we need to reopen The Skylark, The Lambs Club, and finalize two or three new projects that were in various stages of deal-completion just prior to Covid.

IG: @davidrabin8